•     1%  of  hours: Each touchPoint team member receives 2.5 days of paid time off per year to volunteer their time and skills to assist charitable groups and social entrepreneurs

•     1% of Payroll is directly invested into Triple Bottom Line businesses looking to raise capital as part of our commitment to drive funding and awareness for TBL businesses through our [i4c] Campaign platform and Impact Funds

•     1% of revenue is pooled and used to to deeply discount standard client fees for early stage social entrepreneurs

•     1% of profit is contributed to charitable organizations and social entrepreneurs

Additional Community Commitments

Healthy Lifestyles
•     100% Employer paid medical and dental insurance for all team members
•     Discounted health club memberships for all team members
•     Daytime workouts are strongly encouraged & supported through flexible schedules

Transportation Alternatives
•     An annual bus pass is provided to all team members
•     Car Sharing (between drivers and non-drivers) is practiced regularly
•     “Leave Your Car At Home” once per month is strongly encouraged and practiced

Clean & Green Preferred Vendors
•     Eldorado Water, EcoGreenOffice, Dish Gourmet, Seventh Generation

Each year, touchPoint volunteers at a local, small-scale organic farm to help with pre-market harvest work. Individually, touchPoint team members participate in local races and events that raise dollars for charity and help support a healthy, active community.

For 15 years, Rich Frankenheimer has been an organizer for Boulder County’s annual Share-A-Gift charity, which provides donated gifts to families in need throughout the holiday season. This year, Cory Martin and Marketing Manager Annie Barr helped contribute to Share-a-Gift’s efforts. Annie Barr is also an active Bonfils blood donor.

touchPoint plans to make a deeper commitment to civic engagement in 2012.

touchPoint takes alternative transportation seriously. Cory Martin, Annie Barr, and Julie Wagoner all commute via scooter, bike, bus or on foot. In the warmer seasons, Casey Verbeck and Rich Frankenheimer take their 10-mile commute on bicycle at least once a week, and Melissa Thomas commutes on foot. The touchPoint team also participates in events like the semi-annual Bike-to-Work Day. All touchPoint employees are provided annual bus passes.

To reduce our impact, touchPoint purchases environmentally-friendly office supplies, including recycled paper and all-natural cleaning supplies. When it comes to catering, touchPoint’s preferred food vendor for events, meetings and lunch sells only delicious locally-sourced organic dishes.

So, what exactly is an Impact Report?

touchPoint will share the social, environmental, and economic impact the firm achieved through an annual summary called an Impact Report.  We create this report so our stakeholders – our partners, clients, and community – understand the value of the work that we’re doing beyond the dollars. As a company devoted to helping businesses and causes create a better world, touchPoint feels it is essential to show concrete evidence of measurable impact. These reports hold touchPoint accountable to more than just profit; they hold us accountable to our commitment of addressing food insecurity, education, environmental degradation, corporate responsibility and so much more.

As businesses take a greater interest in becoming catalysts for social and environmental change, the role of shareholders and other stakeholders becomes increasingly relevant. Consumers have the power to support causes through their spending dollars and investors can make impact-driven investments that provide a return on many different levels.  Through these reports, it is possible to show how all of these contributions have made a true impact on the world.

Large businesses, foundations, and organizations alike are publishing their own reports to participate in the drive for a more responsible economy. While it has been a challenge to find a standardized way to measure impact for many companies, it is encouraging to learn how different industries are working toward creating a better tomorrow and reporting their efforts.

touchPoint is excited to present this report to its stakeholders and hopes to inspire other companies to track their social, environmental, and economic impact as well.

You might be wondering how this concept became a staple to many industries. What happened to cause this shift? Traditional capitalism has shown us its weaknesses. Some behaviors from Wall Street and other big businesses have ended up having a very negative impact on the economy. It’s caused many false institutions to break down. And some consumers have lost trust in business because of the corruption.

Corporate institutions now need a different way of doing things. They must evaluate and change the way they measure success if they hope to remain sustainable. These companies need to adopt the Triple Bottom Line model that supports people, planet, and profit. This demand for the triple bottom line model has been furthered as a result of the Information Age.

The web has evolved as a resource of information on a company’s operations and history. If a company is causing harm to people or the environment, consumers can easily gather on social media networks to voice their disappointment.

On the other hand, if a company decides to adopt the triple bottom line methodology, these channels can serve as a great resource for creating awareness around a cause, building customer trust, and improving brand reputation.

These digital media outlets allow us to help people strategically obtain access to information that could cause social change. At touchPoint, we are extremely well versed in the use of social media. We’d love to discuss how we could utilize social media to help your company achieve its corporate social responsibility and impact goals.

To learn more about our social media capabilities, contact info@touchPointPartners.com

Feeding America explores the realities of hunger in America, which is often closer to home than many realize.

Impressive members of the Palo Alto technology and financial services communities attended the event, which was focused on the plight of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in sub-Saharan Africa.

The END Fund team was on hand at the event to discuss the philanthropic initiative as a solution to help eradicate NTDs.

Featured presenters of the event included:
William Campbell, Chairman of the International Advisory Board for The END Fund

The END Fund Technical Advisory Board Members:
Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of the Global Network
Dr. Julie Jacobson of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

The Fund itself seeks to deploy grant capital into the hands of sub-Saharan Africa based NGOs who can deliver donated medications to those that need it most.

touchPoint is currently working with The END Fund to raise this capital. For more information on The END Fund, please contact James Perez Foster at james@touchpointpartners.com

Instead, I was given the opportunity to help with recruiting efforts and event planning for the Red Bull Graduate Program. I also assisted the Marketing Coordinator in creating decks for campaigns and potential clients. The team was very welcoming as they invited me to join in on weekly Monday morning meetings with the entire staff.

I came in with little knowledge of websites and social media and gained some great hands-on experience learning the ins-and-outs of both. I not only had the chance to write blog posts and announcements for the website and blog, but was also exposed to the back end of the sites to learn the different programs used to create and format each.

I really enjoyed the experience of helping out with event planning for the Red Bull Graduate Program. I contacted numerous venues, caterers, and organized schedules for all those who would be traveling to the different cities to interview. It gave me the opportunity to see behind the scenes of the recruiting process, which will be extremely beneficial as I will be going through the same process next semester.

I’m thankful I had the opportunity to be a part of touchPoint’s internship program. I have learned so many lessons during this semester-long internship, and know that I will be using all of these new skills throughout my career.
- Gail Clair

Hosting over 30,000 students and faculty, the University of Colorado is constantly working to improve the sustainability of campus operations. In signing the Talloires Declaration in 1997, CU has committed to setting an example of environmental responsibility in teaching, research, and operations. Through the CU Environmental Center, the nation’s largest and most accomplished student-led center of its kind, CU-Boulder has implemented numerous sustainability projects in working to become a global leader in sustainability. We’d like to share a few of the ways that the University of Colorado, Boulder contributes to environmental sustainability.

Among the numerous projects CU is currently involved with, the featured projects below have significantly reduced CU’s carbon footprint, and serve as a template for future ventures.

Semester Bicycle Rentals
Initially an experimental project, the CU Semester Bicycle Rentals (SBR) program has since expanded with the help of a CU seed grant. With added funding, the program has developed a robust business operation providing over 60 bicycles to students as a means of alternative transportation.

CU Green Roof Project

As the University of Colorado renovates across campus, the Green Roof program finances the construction and implementation of green roofs. Dating back to the hanging Gardens of Babylon, green roofs are a time tested building system providing many aesthetic, cultural, structural, economic, social, and sustainability-related functions. These living systems serve to connect the natural world with the built world.

Laboratory Freezer Competition Incentives

Ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers operating at negative 80 degrees Celsius are growing in number and are extremely large consumers of energy, each using approximately the same electricity as an entire average US house. With multiple ULT freezers installed throughout the CU campus, the program aims to raise the temperature by 10 degrees, preserving the majority of experiment-required lab standards and ultimately reducing the energy needs of CU laboratories.

Boasting various awards, and funding a multitude of programs across campus, CU is constantly looking to expand on sustainability efforts. The school is actively developing courses focused on sustainability and green tech, and hopes to pave the way for other schools to follow suit.

Images courtesy University of Colorado

Nearly all present shared a strong passion for changing the world and working to achieve a healthier society. Speaker Al Gore set the stage by encouraging attendees to take ownership of what they’re trying to do and be willing to go through brick walls to achieve success. He reminded the audience to not view this movement only as a way of doing business; instead, look at this as a way of changing the world.

Gore also encouraged all to understand that a healthier society equals better business. If we feed people, ensure education, keep housing affordable, and re-build the infrastructure domestically we will see happier people who are willing to have buying power in a marketplace.

Following Gore’s speech, we were excited to dive into networking through smaller sessions and one-on-one meetings with other attendees. We learned that a majority of larger brands are looking to approach sustainability and community engagements by working with small, intimate firms that devote focused attention, passion and creativity to projects. touchPoint is certain that its team’s expertise and areas of focus are timely for this demand. We are driven to give the personal attention companies need to fully integrate corporate responsibility into their operations to change the world.